I have to thank my Flickr friend Glen Mullaly for solving this mystery for me.
What's really bizarre is that I had initially posted an "A.S." illustration and another piece clearly signed "Arthur Sarnoff" together back on Father's Day and never made the connection. Doh!
I found quite a lot of artwork and information on Arthur Sarnoff at various websites. There's a bit of biographical info at askart.com. The American Art Archives has a tremendous selection of Sarnoff illustrations (including several wonderful Karo Kid ads). And you can see some of Sarnoff's later work (and even buy one of his originals) at The Illustrated Gallery.
For those who are fans of pinup art, there's a baker's dozen of fresh, hot lovelies by Sarnoff at the Virtual Pin-ups Art Gallery.
Another weird coincidence: the very day I posted about the mysterious "A.S.", I received the scan above from Ranger Bob asking if I could make out the signature at the bottom left. I tell ya, its like the spirit of Arthur Sarnoff was trying to guide me in the right direction....
All of the images above (and all the "A.S." illustrations previously seen here) are now in my Arthur Sarnoff Flickr set where you can view them at full size.
A Sarnoff cover from 1952 for American Weekly, based on an idea from his wife Lillian, “who came home one night and reported she’d seen — of all things! — a MAN knitting” a pair of argyles.
ReplyDeleteVery nice! Thanks David. :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome stuff, Leif, thanks for posting it. I know I've seen his work before, but didn't know his name. As an added bonus, when I checked the link to the American Art Archives, I found out that he also used to do the poker/pool playing dogs.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I discovered a whole slew of those cheesy paintings at one of those websites where you can order posters, bob-o. I debated whether to include that aspect of Sarnoff's career in my post. They are, after all, the height of cheese. I kind of like 'em in the same way I like all hokey pop art - like Pete Hawley's sickly-sweet cutey pie kids from later in his career.
ReplyDeleteBut for some reason I decided to leave that out f my post about Sarnoff... maybe that reveals a prejudice I didn't realize I have against those dog paintings... I dunno...